Why E-Books?

[patrickt]

I suppose everyone has a reason. Mine was quite selfish. I live in Mexico. Reading in Spanish is work and reading in English is a joy. Books in English aren't easy to come by. So, for years I waited for a common format. Then I decided it wasn't coming.

To be honest, I didn't pay much attention to the different devices. I focused on which device, and therefore, which format, gave me the best access to what I want to read. For me, it was Amazon.

So, that meant, for me, it was a Kindle.

What was your reason for deciding to read e-books? Did your choice of books dictate the device or did the device dictate your choice of books?

[pdurrant]

For me it was several factors

* sbility to carry several books with me everywhere
* ebooks generally cheaper to buy
* easy access to books published by Baen (US publisher) in the UK

and a little bit of 'cool gadgets'.

(Although when I started, the 'cool gadgets' were Sony Clies! Now they're a Kindle Voyage and a YotaPhone 2)

[Cinisajoy]

Books in one small space.

But cookbooks do not work as well as I had hoped on a device.

[DiapDealer]

Immediacy. Plain and simple.The ability to go from wanting to read something, to actually reading it within minutes.

As far as the relevance of the device: I bought my first ebooks before dedicated reading devices were readily available. I read them on Palm Pilots and Windows CE/Mobile devices.

[ekbell]

I started reading ebooks on my palm pilot because of the availability of free books from baen and gutenburg. [I originally bought my palm pilot so that I could have a portable database of my books] I bought a very few stories and books from fictionwise
but mostly just read fanfic grabbed from the web and free books.

It took time, the purchase of an ipod touch, installing calibre (for format switching), running out of bookshelves and the loss of a few paper books (a number of books I bought new started falling to pieces!) before I really started buying ebooks.

Now I've bought kobos for my husband and kids plus an android tablet for myself and have thousands of ebooks which are backed up in at least three different places.

[Sirtel]

The main reason - storage space (I live in a small apartment). Price and availability were also big factors.

As for device, Amazon was pretty much the only major seller back then who sold e-books to me in Estonia. So it was a Kindle. I saw no reason to change devices later either (Kobo readers are nice, but they don't have page-turn buttons and that is a dealbreaker for me). Conversion is easy and I use Calibre for managing my library anyway. So the format doesn't matter to me.

[JSWolf]

I don't have to lug around pBooks. I'd need to carry at least two pBooks with me because I don't want to run out when I finish the one current;y being read.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

For me it was several factors

* sbility to carry several books with me everywhere
* ebooks generally cheaper to buy
* easy access to books published by Baen (US publisher) in the UK

and a little bit of 'cool gadgets'.

(Although when I started, the 'cool gadgets' were Sony Clies! Now they're a Kindle Voyage and a YotaPhone 2)

Mostly I agree with the mouse. Originally, I had crossed out the part about "ebooks being cheaper", because that's never been true in my experience, but I guess that confuses our readers.

eBooks were not generally cheaper for me, since my print-book purchases were skewed heavily by second-hand purchases. And given the types of books I buy, the prices have mostly gotten worse, not better.

But I absolutely love being able to carry around a library with me.

Given that I've been reading eBooks for 15 years, I'd have to say my biggest reason now is the ability to increase the font size. As I age, my ability to read print books comfortably for any length of time decreases.

[patrickt]

When I was doing paper books I didn't just carry a book. I also carried my beanbag to prop my book on while I read a lunch. I also had a bookweight to hold my book open. Then I had my 3x5 index cards and a pen to jot down words I wanted to look up when I got home. This morning I ran across the phrase, "He was wearing a wide-awake hat." What in blazes is a wide-awake hat?

Now, I carry my Kindle everywhere.

Baen and Gutenberg didn't interest me. They don't cater to my taste in reading. When I worked, 95% of my reading was non-fiction and work-related. When I retired it went 95% fiction.

[darryl]

I too started reading ebooks on a Palm Pilot. Convenience was a major factor. Books as electronic files are far easier to cart around than paper books, and available anywhere. Though paper books remained my primary source of reading material until I bought my first Sony ereader. Since then I have rarely read paper books. My sight is now also a major factor. I can still read paper books, but it is nowhere near as comfortable an experience as I would like. As if these reasons were not enough, I was able to finally escape the tyranny of the major publishers in Australia. I had already started to order paper books from Amazon. Mostly it was significantly cheaper to import the books from the US rather than buy locally. The Paperwhite was a dream come true. I think I bought it partly for my long ago 10 year old self who had to read clandestinely under the covers with a torch. He would have loved it! Did I mention just about everything available, instant gratification, and cheaper prices?

[Atunah]

Why ebooks? Why did I decide on them? Easy, so I could read again. I wasn't able to read very much until I got my first kindle in 2008. Small font and yellowing pages on paperbacks were killing me. I went from reading basically 0 books to reading 200 in my first year with kindle. All the other things ebooks do come after that. Being able to read again, that is the biggie.

[BookCat]

Many years ago, I saw a friend using an emulator with his Gameboy PC (the type that flipped up like a laptop) to read "The Castle of Oltranto" and other gothic books he'd downloaded from Gutenberg. I thought it was great. A few years later, I heard about Sony ereaders and wanted one. I think seeing the Gameboy "reader" had introduced me to the notion.

At the time, I thought it would be nothing more than an expensive gimmick, after all, I had books which I bought from jumble shops and car boot sales for nothing. But the longer I had my Sony 505, the more useful it became: all my beloved classics FOR FREE! And the Sony free book offers. Then I began to realise the convenience of just reaching out a hand and having lots of books to choose. No more clutter, no more bags of books littering the floor and creaking my bookshelves!

And the fonts! I could alter the size depending on how my eyes were focussing that day, or my mood. I soon came to realise I preferred reading a novel on my ebook to reading a paperback (all that tiny, often badly-printed font).

Far from being an expensive gimmick, ereaders have become a necessity, especially as I've become older and my near vision has deteriorated somewhat.

[dublincheri]

Another Palm Pilot reader here! It began with getting access to books that were hard to come by in Ireland, then when I realised how much lighter my carry on bags were without a selection of paperbacks I was hooked. Eventually we moved to a smaller space with limited storage and neither of us owns many print books at all. The exceptions would be reference books and the like, but almost no fiction in physical form.

[haydnfan]

I used to buy tons of books and every few months I would lug boxes over to donate to the public library. It was a huge hassle and my Father suggested that I buy a Kindle instead. I still sometimes buy and read paperbacks (and I do like to collect hardcovers) but now it's reduced enough that I only need to lug boxes of books to the library every 1-2 years.

I think my favorite thing is reading a real door stop of a book on a light as a feather ereader.

Originally Posted by patrickt

....I focused on which device, and therefore, which format, gave me the best access to what I want to read. For me, it was Amazon.

So, that meant, for me, it was a Kindle.

Really close to why I chose Amazon as my main bookstore, and originally as my device type; in other words went with the Kindle.

Once upon a time I decided to try out the new Sony eReaders as they looked really cool with more bells and whistles, but after several months of frustration and disappointment with the Sony eBook Store, I gave up and returned to Amazon. Amazon built a great eBook store, and that made all the difference to me at the time, especially since I rarely read fiction. I read histories and science related books mostly, and only Amazon had much choice in those genres back then.

Later I decided to do my reading on non-eInk devices like my smartphone and tablets. So the Kindle was not even a factor any more, but the bookstore definitely was. I once tried Nook and B&N, but that was not good either. And I also tried Kobo, but they couldn't get their FW working right and their store was lackluster too.

ETA: I also started reading eBooks on a Palm Pilot. Pretty cool for a day and time when very few people knew you could do that. Most people thought Palm Pilots only had stuff like appointment calendars and what not, so I could pull my Pilot out of my pocket during extremely boring company meetings and tune out their nonsense by reading. These were mostly pep rally type of meetings by a company that was quickly spiraling into oblivion. And of course, the ability to hold a small device in one hand and read as opposed to trying to balance a paperback or hard cover printed book, keep the darn thing open, and then still have that cruddy curve to the pages. Yep, a flat screen and easy handling sold me on eBooks very quickly.